The Pattonville School District organized and hosted a two-day conference to enable adults and students to work together to create research-based solutions to different learning challenges. Design Challenge was co-sponsored by Discovery Education and held June 5 and 6 at Pattonville Heights Middle School. The event featured keynotes and breakout sessions by Fred Bramante, founder and president of the National Center for Competency-Based Learning; Ray McNulty, dean of the school of education at Southern New Hampshire University; and experts from Discovery Education.

During the conference, participants learned about leading public education innovations in the nation, including competency-based education, an educational approach that emphasizes learning and mastering content and skills over traditional grade levels and seat time in a classroom. Participants also defined challenges related to competency-based or personalized learning that, if solved, would lead to students being better prepared to master high school coursework and/or be prepared for college and careers after graduation. Teams had individual time to work on school- or district-level challenges such as restructuring the middle school model, designing alternative education programs or determining how to better personalize learning for students. Nearly 30 teams participated from Pattonville, Ladue, Mehlville and Parkway school districts,
along with some representatives from Saint Louis University.

The goal was to design learning experiences that engage students in meaningful thinking that forms a foundation for life success and leads to high performance for all learners.

Approximately 270 educators and students participated in Design Challenge 2017.